Braves 26 Bristol 10

Exeter Braves 26

Bristol United 10

Mark Stevens at Sandy Park

Exeter Braves proved too hot to handle for local rivals Bristol as they claimed a dominant 26-10 victory in this friendly at Sandy Park.

Ricky Pellow’s side ran in four tries on the night, two of them in the first half through AJ Cant and Harrison Cully, before replacement Marcus Street helped himself to a late double.

Will Hooley and Joe Simmonds shared out the remainder of the home side’s points, while in reply Bristol countered with tries from Andy Uren and Gareth Maule.

Back in action for the first time since their away win at Harlequins earlier this month, it was a healthy mix of youth and experience that took to the field for the Braves.

Haydn Thomas, Tom Johnson, Ben White and Max Bodilly offered the experience, while the youthful element saw outings for the likes of Harry Strong, Tom Lawday, Cant and fellow winger Harrison Cully.

Bristol - who had to endure a nightmare journey down the M5 due an earlier accident - paraded former Chief Luke Arscott in their ranks, but he and his team-mates had to withstand a strong start from the Braves on a wet and wild night at Sandy Park.

Although the home side huffed and puffed, it was not until Gareth Maule was yellow carded for the visitors that they finally made a breakthrough. With the numerical advantage, Exeter picked off their rivals with a slick move that saw Bodilly provide the key pass for youngster Cant to cross in the corner.

Fly-half Hooley plundered a sublime touchline conversion to make it 7-0, but he was unable to repeat the feat for the home side’s second score, which arrived on 17 minutes.

Solid work from the Braves pack saw them drive their way into enemy territory, before Hooley fed Bodilly in space out wide. With plenty to do, some fancy footwork from the young Cornishman saw him break clear of the shackles before he fed Joe Simmonds, who in turn fed Cully to glide over in the right corner.

It was no more than the Braves deserved following a positive opening quarter, but it was Bristol who were next to strike, claiming their opening try out of almost nothing.

Auguy Slowik latched onto a chip kick from Arscott before kicking the ball in behind the Exeter defensive line. Simmonds raced across to cover the danger, but when he was swamped by the advancing winger, the wet ball squirmed loose and Nick Fenton-Wells was quickest to react, feeding Uren the simplest of chances to get his name on the scoreboard.

At the other end, the Chiefs - particularly dominant in the set-piece - looked to add to their tally, but a combination of knock-ons and some stout Bristol defence meant they were denied the chance to extend their lead before the break.

HALF TIME     EXETER BRAVES 12     BRISTOL UNITED 5

On the resumption, Bristol introduced Dan Powell into the fray and the guesting Plymouth Albion back was quickly into the action, linking neatly with the lively Slowik to stretch the home defence. Initially it looks as though the visitors were about to get their second score, but Powell threw the ball forward in contact and the chance was lost.

Undeterred, the visitors continued to throw men forward in attack with Arscott trying to set up another scoring chance with a speculative cross-field kick that almost found Elias Caven. Again, the Braves were scrambling in defence, but this time a knock-on just yards from the line saved them.

Although conditions overhead seemed to improve, sadly the standard of play on offer did not. A scrappy affair was littered with handling errors and poor play that did little to inspire the crowd of just over 1,000 people.

Bristol continued to offer the greater attacking threat, but they were unable to make any inroads, a point underlined when Maule failed to hold onto a pass in midfield when he had two attackers outside of him.

With the Chiefs shedding bodies through injuries to Cully, Hooley and Sam Skinner, it did at least give the home coaches the chance to look at up-and-coming young guns such as Chris Swas, Joe Elderkin and Josh Caulfield.

Finally, a turgid second half saw the first points when, on 67 minutes, Bristol claimed their second try of the night. Initially Bodilly did well to cover an Arscott kick in behind, but when he was pinged for holding on, the visitors took their chance to strike.

Uren took control of the ball, firing an inch perfect cross-field kick into the arms of Maule on the left touchline, and the centre made no mistake with a simple dot down to cut the deficit to just two points.

The score seemed to ignite the Braves into action and in a storming conclusion to the game, they once more pulled clear with some dominant work up front.

Atkins set the platform for their third try, which was worked round the corner for Street to go in under the posts, and the young prop was at it again just two minutes later, this time propelled over the whitewash at a rate of knots by two of his Exeter colleagues. On both occasions, Simmonds was on hand to add the extras to make it 26-10.
Braves: J Simmonds; H Cully (C Swash 56), M Bodilly, H Strong, AJ Cant; W Hooley (J Elderkin 59), H Thomas (M Marsh 68); C Rimmer (W Norton h/t), S Malton (J Innard 75), J Owlett (M Street 68); O Atkins, S Skinner (capt, J Caulfield 49); T Johnson, B White, T Lawday (J McRae 77).

Tries - Cant, Cully, Street (2); Conversions - Hooley, Simmonds (2)

Bristol: L Arscott; A Slowik, G Maule, J Newey, E Caven; R Forbes (D Powell h/t), A Uren (I Hughes 70); O Dawe (T Rowland 67), S Parsons (J Rye 67), J Hall; BJ Edwards (K Gannaway-Roberts 70), J Hawkins; N Koster, N Fenton-Wells (capt), R Smid (A Haynes 67).

Tries - Uren, Maule

Yellow Card: Maule

Referee: A Leal

Attendance: 1,196